Saudi war on Yemen ends in failure

Sun May 10, 2015 12:13PM

Yemeni men stand on a street as smoke billows following reported air strikes on the residence of Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on May 10, 2015, in the capital Sana’a. ©AFP

Yemeni tribal forces and the Ansarullah movement have been attacking Saudi border posts as an answer to Saudi brutal aggression. An unknown number of Saudi military have been killed in recent weeks.
Some Yemenis who took part in these operations spoke about how shocked Saudi troops were when they had to face experienced Yemeni fighters. Thousands of Saudi soldiers have fled and abandoned their posts and arms behind them.
According to Global Research, “the intelligence gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.
Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have abandoned the army battalions and the National Guard, according to the Global Research.
Although Saudi Arabia bought $67 billion worth of weapons from the US in 2011-12, experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion in Yemen and such an attack is considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia by Western military experts.

According to Global Research, European intelligence services assert that Riyadh does not have a real army and infantry troops to fight against the Yemeni military and Ansarullah and tribal fighters in the event that Riyadh decides to launch a ground invasion.
Western media note failure
Some mainstream Western media outlets, such as the New York Times, consider that the Saudi campaign of airstrikes has failed to attain any achievement in Yemen. Ansarullah fighters and army troops have actually been taking over new cities and villages, including most of Aden, in these weeks.

Yemeni students wave their national flag and posters as they shout slogans during a rally protesting against the Saudi airstrikes in the capital Sana’a, on May 9, 2015.  ©AFP

Al-Qaeda terrorists and fugitive president Mansour Hadi’s supporters have been defeated all over the country despite Saudi support for these groups.
Yemeni people have carried out huge demonstrations in Sana’a and other cities and at least 642,000 Yemenis of all Islamic trends have joined militias in order to fight against the Saudi aggression.
In fact, as an unintended results of the Saudi war against Yemen, more and more Yemenis identify now themselves with the Ansarullah movement and with the People’s Committees who are managing the country since the beginning of the war.
Saudi Arabia tried to persuade Egypt and Pakistan to send troops to invade Yemen, but internal opposition to that move has prevented the governments of these countries from taking part in such dangerous adventure. The Pakistani parliament obliged Nawaz Sharif´s government to reject the Saudi request and Egypt, which is waging a war against ISIL-linked terrorist groups in Sinai and other parts of the country, has no desire to sink deeper into the Yemen quagmire.
Egypt still remembers the bad experience of its previous Yemeni war (1962-1970), which was called “the Egyptian Vietnam”. After six years of war in a rugged land against Yemeni guerrillas, Egypt incurred important losses -thousands of casualties in addition to the economic cost estimated at half a million dollars a day- and was forced to leave the country.
Egyptian experts think that the Saudi army, which is much more inexperienced and inefficient, would suffer a crushing defeat in Yemen. Moreover, Yemeni people possess numerous arms and every tribe in Yemen has heavy, medium and light weapons.
Saudi Arabia tried to create a mercenary force when Hadi was in Aden and pressured the leaders of some military brigades in some southern provinces in an attempt to turn them into a “free army” as was the case in Syria, but this project failed.
Saudi Arabia is also arming and supporting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIL, two of the most brutal terrorist groups in the world, in order to make them fight against the Yemeni Army and Ansarullah fighters.
Some US military officers are now warning of the long-term consequences of this Saudi support for terrorist groups.
Although Saudi rulers have lost this war, airstrikes continue and have killed and injured thousands of Yemeni civilians and members of tribes. There is no doubt that proud Yemeni people will not forget this aggression and will take advantage of any Saudi ground invasion to fight directly against those who have committed so many crimes against their people.
In Yemen, Ansarullah fighters, army troops and tribal fighters are now united in the defense of the homeland against an arrogant aggressor and this popular unity will become the best tool to achieve the final victory.
Loss of Western support?
There is also new criticism in Western media towards Saudi Arabia for the role of this country in the financing of terrorist and extremist groups in the Middle East. A recent article by writer Richard Norton Taylor criticized the sale of British weapons to the Saudi regimen claiming that the kingdom supports intolerant Wahhabi groups, some of which -such as al-Qaeda and the ISIL- have become a serious threat for both the region and the whole world.
At the same time, US decision-making circles think that Saudi state is getting more vulnerable and fragile due to internal discontent. Recently, US President Barack Obama warned that the real threat for the Arab states of the Persian Gulf was not Iran but the increasing turmoil, including the wrath of angry youths and the unemployed and their sense that there is no political solution to their grievances. It was the first time that a US president referred to the internal problems of the Saudi society.
The Guardian, for its part, claimed that the Saudi regime “hopes the fall of Syria because it would mean a defeat for Iran and, thus, Saudi Arabia could become a major regional state, but this goal is unattainable”. “The approach taken by Saudi authorities could hold it disastrous surprises”, it added.
The British newspaper pointed out that the future will have dire consequences for the Wahhabi kingdom. “The chaos will hit Saudi Arabia because of the acts of repression carried out by the authorities, rampant corruption and mass arrests”.
Why do Saudi rulers insist on the continuation of airstrikes despite the failure of its strategy?
It is probably about arrogance and pride. Saudi rulers fear the humiliation of defeat in this war because it would make them appear as powerless in the eyes of the countries of the region and, even worse, of their own people. Therefore, in the next weeks, Saudi Arabia will desperately look for an exit strategy in order to cover up its failure in Yemen.
YF/KA